If you’re familiar with the command-line tool curl, you may wonder how to use curl in Xojo effectively. Curl is a powerful tool for making HTTP requests, but it’s not always the most convenient for working within a graphical application like Xojo.

That’s where Xojo’s URLConnection class shines! It provides a simple and elegant way to make HTTP requests directly from your Xojo code, making it easy to use curl in Xojo.

In this post, you will learn how to adapt common curl commands to Xojo’s URLConnection. Let’s get started.

Basic GET Request Using Curl in Xojo

Meaning: Fetch the content of the specified URL using a GET request.

curl https://example.com

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com", 30)

GET Request with Query Parameters

Meaning: Fetch the content of the specified URL with query parameters.

curl "https://example.com?param1=value1&param2=value2"

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com?param1=value1&param2=value2", 30)

Var socket As New URLConnection

// Define the query parameters using Pair
Var queryParams() As Pair
queryParams.Add("param1" : "value1")
queryParams.Add("param2" : "value2")

// Construct the URL with query parameters
Var baseURL As String = "https://example.com"
Var queryString As String = "?"

For Each param As Pair In queryParams
  queryString = queryString + param.Left + "=" + param.Right + "&"
Next

// Remove the trailing '&' character
queryString = queryString.Left(queryString.Length - 1)

// Combine base URL and query string
Var fullURL As String = baseURL + queryString

Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", fullURL, 30)

Adding Headers

Meaning: Send a GET request with a custom header.

curl -H "Content-Type: application/json" https://example.com

Var socket As New URLConnection
socket.RequestHeader("Content-Type") = "application/json"
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com", 30)

Sending JSON Data with POST

Meaning: Send a POST request with JSON data to the specified URL.

curl -L 'http://example.com' ^
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' ^
-d '{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2"}'

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var jsonData As String = "{""key1"":""value1"",""key2"":""value2""}"
socket.SetRequestContent(jsonData, "application/json")
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("POST", "https://example.com", 30)

Var socket As New URLConnection
// Create a new JSONItem
Var json As New JSONItem

// Add key-value pairs to the JSONItem
json.Value("key1") = "value1"
json.Value("key2") = "value2"

socket.SetRequestContent(json.ToString, "application/json")
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("POST", "https://example.com", 30)

Basic Authentication

Meaning: Send a GET request with basic authentication.

curl -u username:password http://example.com

Var socket As New URLConnection
socket.RequestHeader("Authorization") = "Basic " + EncodeBase64("username:password")
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com", 30)

Download a File

Meaning: Download a file from the specified URL and save it with the given filename.

curl -o filename https://example.com/file.zip

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var outputFile As FolderItem = SpecialFolder.Desktop.Child("file.zip")
socket.SendSync("GET", "https://example.com/file.zip", outputFile, 30)

Custom Request Methods

Meaning: Send a DELETE request to the specified URL (you can replace DELETE with any other method required, PUT, PATCH…)

curl -X DELETE https://example.com/resource

Var socket As New URLConnection
Var response As String = socket.SendSync("DELETE", "https://example.com/resource", 30)

As you’ve seen, using curl in Xojo with the URLConnection class is a breeze.

Whether you’re fetching data, sending/receiving JSON payloads, or downloading files, the examples provided in this tutorial offer a solid foundation for integrating web services into your Xojo applications. As you continue to experiment with URLConnection, you’ll discover even more ways to enhance your projects and improve your workflow.

If you found this tutorial helpful, don’t forget to share it with your fellow developers and colleagues.

Gabriel is a digital marketing enthusiast who loves coding with Xojo to create cool software tools for any platform. He is always eager to learn and share new ideas!

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I did some research and found that Amazon provides a service that does exactly what the client was asking for. The service, called Amazon Translate, is available as one of many services that are available through Amazon Web Services.

In this post, I’ll walk you through the process of getting signed up for Amazon Translate, and then share some code that you can use to add language translation to your own Xojo projects. We’ll use the MBS Xojo CURL Plugin, which makes calling the Amazon Translate API easy. But first, let’s learn a little about Amazon Translate.

Amazon Translate

Amazon Translate is an API that can be used to translate text on demand. You send it text in a “source language,” tell the API what that source language is, as well as the “target language” that you want the text translated to. The API responds with the translated text.

Amazon Translate uses machine learning and neural networks that have been designed specifically for language translation. When performing a translation, the service reads the text one sentence at a time, and reads each word individually, to determine the meaning of a sentence. In other words, the service doesn’t just translate words. Instead, it’s acting as an interpreter. This results in translations that are extremely accurate.

In order to use Amazon Translate, you’ll need an AWS account. If you already have an AWS account, log into the account.

Next, you’ll need to create an “Identity and Access Management” (IAM) user. To do so, under Services, select “IAM” (which can be found in the “Security, Identity, & Compliance” category). This will present you with the IAM Dashboard.

Under Groups, create a new group and give it a recognizable name. For example, you might call the group “translate.” As you are creating the group, give it the “TranslateFullAccess” permission.

Next, create an IAM user. Under Users, click the “Add user” button. Give the user a name such as “XojoTranslater.” For the “AWS access type” be sure to select “Programmatic access.” Add the user to the “translate” group that you created above. There’s no need to assign any tags to the user, so you can skip that step.

And finally, create an Access key for the user. Be sure to make note of both the “Access key ID” and “Secret access key” values that are automatically assigned. You’ll need these in order to make API calls.

The MBS Xojo CURL Plugin

If you don’t already have the MBS Xojo CURL Plugin, download it and install it. To install the plugin, simply drag it into the Xojo “Plugins” folder.

The project will work with an unlicensed version of the MBS Xojo CURL Plugin. In this case, you’ll occasionally see a popup message reminding you to purchase a license. However, I highly encourage you to purchase a license. You can license the plugin individually, or as part of the MBS Complete plugin bundle.

The Xojo Example Project

To demonstrate the Amazon Translate service, I’ve put together an example Xojo desktop project (project file). Before running the application, be sure to set the three App-level properties: AWSAccessKeyId, AWSSecretAccessKey, and the AWSRegion. For the AWSAccessKeyId and AWSSecretAccessKey properties, use the values that you set when you created the Access key for the user. For the AWSRegion, refer to this and use the value that makes the most sense for you.

Once you’ve configured the app, run it, and it will look something like this.

The Xojo Code

Let’s take a look at some of the code.

The AWSTranslator class is a subclass of the CURLSMBS class. The class does two important things: It provides access to a list of the languages that are supported, and provides a method for calling the Amazon Translate API.

The “Languages” property is a dictionary that you can use to get the names of the languages that Amazon Translate supports and the corresponding language codes. The example app uses this dictionary to populate the “Translate From” (SourcePopupMenu) and “Translate To” (TargetPopupMenu) popup menus.

The Translate method creates the payload that gets sent to the Amazon Translate API, and sets special HTTP headers that are needed in order to call the API. But most importantly, it uses the CURLSMBS class’s “SetupAWS” method to configure the CURL instance so that all of the steps that are required to “sign” the API request are done automatically. This is an amazingly convenient function of the MBS Xojo CURL Plugin. You can get a sense of what’s involved in signing the request here.

To translate text using the AWSTranslator class, you create an instance, configure it with your IAM credentials and AWS region, pass it the source language text, the source language code, and the target language code. In the example app, this all handled in the Window1.Translate method. The values are pulled from the App-level properties, as well as the various window controls. Finally, you call the AWSTranslator instance’s Translate method. If the translation is successful, the translated text will be available via the TranslatedText property. If any errors occur, the ErrorType and ErrorMessage properties will be set.

The “Estimated Translation Cost” is calculated whenever the Source Text changes. The value is calculated by taking the length (number of characters) of the Source Text and multiplying it by 0.000015 (the average cost for translating a single character).

Wrapping Up

I’ve been amazed at the speed and accuracy of the Amazon Translate service. And after developing the AWSTranslator class, I was able to quickly and easily add language translation to my client’s middleware app.

I hope you’re equally impressed by the Amazon Translate service, and that you find the AWSTranslator class to be helpful in your own Xojo projects.

Tim Dietrich is a custom software developer based in Richmond, Virginia. To learn more, visit: https://timdietrich.me